Shen Leng brought his troops back to the Navy’s camp and headed directly to the arsenal. His subordinates were akin to small ants who were moving homes; the people in the arsenal were stunned. If not for His Majesty’s decree that was already known by everyone, nobody would dare to allow him to take that many items as he pleased.

“Traveling very far this time?”

The official registrar of the arsenal asked cautiously. He thought to himself: There are supply replenishment stops along the way, as well as the official replenishment docks on the waterways. Why is there a need to take so many things? Hence, he wondered: Could it be that General Shen wants to take his entire regiment straight to Qiuli and attack them?

“Yeah, we are leaving Jiangnan. Naturally, it’s going to be a long journey.”

“But with the amount of items you are taking with you, it’s more than enough to go around Jiangnan three times, let alone leave Jiangnan.”

Shen Leng looked at himself and felt embarrassed. Hence, he gestured to his soldiers to stop. “Thank you for your cooperation. We are going to set sail immediately now. I am simply worried that you will miss me. This battle might take a year long at the bare minimum, and it can take up to two to three years. I won’t be here for a long time, the arsenal will seem empty.”

“General Shen, it’s best if you quickly make a move. If you don’t go, this place will truly be emptied out.”

Shen Leng grunted. He pretended to be embarrassed as he left the arsenal. Thereafter, he headed straight for Anyang’s dock.

In fact, the progress over at Anyang’s dock was not slow. Even though the Qiuli people that they brought back were not familiar with shipbuilding, they were familiar with the structure of the functions of the ship. Most importantly, they were well-acquainted with the sea. Shortly after they were brought back to Anyang’s dock, His Majesty specially transferred some people over from the Commandant of Justice’s office. The Qiuli people who were initially obstinate and resistant ended up becoming submissive and obedient in the face of those yaksha-like men.

Initially, because of language barriers, it was inconvenient for them to communicate with those Qiuli people. The Commandant of Justice’s men brushed it off and told them to leave it to them. Hence, they took turns to take the Qiuli prisoners of war away, ten days at a time. Three months later, even the slowest learner of the lot had already grasped the three different styles of writing, let alone communicating verbally.

Anyang’s dock belonged to the Ministry of Works. Even though the dock was significant, since after all, the number of people at the administrative rank was limited, the commanding official of the dock was only a director at the Ministry of Works – he was of the same rank as Shen Leng. The only good thing about this place was that it did not lack money. His Majesty cared a lot about the dock.

As of now, it had been more than a year since Shen Leng and his troops returned from the southern coastal border region. In the early stages, it took a month for them to disassemble the ships. Within the next six months after, they constructed the first Fu Bo battleship. In the month following the construction, they took the ship on its first voyage for the first round of tests. For the second batch, they were currently constructing dozens of Fu Bo ships. Great Ning was ranked first in the world when it came to industrial arts. After they were proficient with the working procedure, naturally, their speed would pick up too.

The dock took up an enormous amount of space. Five years before the Navy was established, they started constructing Anyang’s dock. The busy craftsmen were seen flooding the entire dock, but they worked in an orderly fashion.

The Ministry of Works director, Wang Aishui, was currently in his study, leisurely sipping his tea. His subordinates hurriedly rushed into his study and informed him that a particular general, named Shen Leng, had arrived, saying that he was operating on imperial orders to go down to the southern coastal border region and that he wanted to take some ships from the dock.

Wang Aishui was stunned. He thought to himself: I know about the Navy heading down south, but nobody said anything about taking a ship.

He also knew that General Shen Leng the Navy commander’s trusted aide. Naturally, he did not dare to slight him. He adjusted his clothes and promptly went out to greet him. When he got to the dock, from afar, he could see those men boarding one of the Wan Jun ships – and it was the newly remodeled one. Immediately, Wang Aishui sensed something amiss.

“General Shen!” yelled Wang Aishui, who was still at a distance away.

He ran over quickly.

“Official Wang.”

Shen Leng cupped his fist towards Wang Aishui from the ship. “I am on a punitive expedition to the south on imperial orders. Hence, I came to the dock to take a look at the ships.”

Wang Aishui climbed onto the Wan Jun ship, panting hard. He was sweating all over. “Your expedition to the south is a major event. If there is anything you need, feel free to tell me.”

Shen Leng patted the ship’s railing. “When I got here, I saw that there are more or less twenty Fu Bo ships here.”

Wang Aishui hurriedly replied, “Amongst those ships, only seven had been tested. The rest of them cannot leave the harbor.”

“Seven? How coincidental.”

Shen Leng asked, “What formalities do I have to go through in order to take those Fu Bo ships?”

Wang Aishui felt rather embarrassed as he answered, “Indeed, there will be several formalities. In theory, after all the ships have been tested, and if they have met the standard required, we will have to report to the Ministry of Works, which will then notify the Ministry of Revenue, which will then report to the cabinet…”

Shen Leng drew his black cord sword and placed it next to him. “Is there another way that is more direct and simple?”

Wang Aishui looked at his sword and swallowed his saliva. It was rumored that the death of the deputy commander of the Navy, Mu Xiaofeng, might be linked to this General Shen. If it was true, that he dared to kill even the deputy commander, who could stop him in this dock?

“You can write a receipt for a loan first…”

“Oh, that will be a lot more convenient.”

Shen Leng turned around and looked at the official registrar, Dou Huainan. “Write one for Official Wang. We will borrow…twenty Fu Bo ships, three Wan Jun ships, and fifty Wu Gong speedboats, and…”

Wang Aishui was about to explode. “And?”

“And a Shen Wei.”

Wang Aishui’s knees went weak. He held onto the railing of the ship and managed to stand firmly, albeit with much difficulty. “General Shen, if you want to borrow the ships, you can’t borrow that many…even though the Navy is the one borrowing them, you still have to follow some rules and show us some face. At the very most, your regiment only requires ten to twelve ships. If you take that many, they will be of no use…”

“That’s true.”

Shen Leng asked Dou Huainan, “Have you written it?”

“Not yet.”

“Let me think. Let’s take seven Fu Bo ships first?”

Wang Aishui nodded his head with all his might, as though he was pounding garlic. “Ok, ok. This is possible…”

“And one more Shen Wei.”

“We can’t do that!”

Wang Aishui was flabbergasted. “General, Shen Wei is the commander’s flagship. Furthermore, there are some parts that still need to be worked on before it’s finished. Even if the commander himself were to come here personally to take it, he still would not be able to take it just like that. Let alone a general…”

The meaning behind his words was plain and obvious – General Shen, your rank is not high enough to utilize the Shen Wei battleship.

Shen Leng said with a serious look on his face, “Putting ranks and whatnot aside, I have a concept. The Qiuli people are loathsome, right? If we can kill them, we will kill them instead of capturing them alive. This is because the way they treat us Ning people shows their stance and attitude towards us. This is enmity. The Qiuli people are more well-familiarized with the seas and are more experienced than us when it comes to naval battles. Hence, I intend to win by a surprise move.”

Naturally, Wang Aishui did not have the mood to listen to him talk about that. All he was thinking about was how to stop him from looting Shen Wei.

Shen Leng continued, with a serious look on his face, “Here’s my plan; don’t we have Tie Xi for offense? However, Tie Xi ships are way too slow. Furthermore, in a large scale combat, it might not be as useful. After all, they are not big enough and they are heavy and cumbersome. Shen Wei, on the other hand, is good. We will use Shen Wei for offense and collide into them directly. Even if the Qiuli people are more cunning than they already are, they never would have expected us to use our flagship for offense. Hahahahaha…I’m the one who thought of this brilliant plan. We will be able to scare them big time.”

Wang Aishui’s knees were already weak. “General Shen, Master Shen…can you please not joke around? Before the Qiuli people are scared, I am already utterly scared by what you just said. That is the Navy’s flagship. It represents Great Ning’s prestige, as well as the Navy’s. It also represents His Majesty’s pride. If you want to use it for offense…”

沈冷一脸严肃：“作战乃是大事，不用去在乎那许多。”

Dou Huainan felt that things were starting to get heated up. Hence, he stepped forth to mediate. He pulled Shen Leng’s hand and said, “I understand that you are eager to fight a good battle, general, and I also know that you hate those Qiuli people a lot. But you must consider carefully before you act. After all, Shen Wei is the Navy’s flagship. If we sink it in our first battle, it will be ominous.”

Regardless of what he said, Shen Leng would not persuaded. On the other hand, saying that it would be ominous worked effectively as it hit Shen Leng hard.

“There’s such a saying? If it’s ominous, we cannot let it happen.”

Shen Leng felt that it was such a waste. He had a very regretful look on his face. He looked at Wang Aishui. “In that case…I will not take Shen Wei. Can I take the Wan Jun ships?”

Wang Aishui responded, “That…”

Shen Leng said, “From the looks of it, you seem to be in a very difficult position. I don’t want to put anybody on the spot. Alas, forget it then.”

Wang Aishui replied, “Alright, alright.”

Shen Leng said, “I think taking Shen Wei will be the better choice. You did not seem to be as stressed when I said I wanted it.”

Wang Aishui relented. “Wan Jun! One Wan Jun!”

Shen Leng was reluctant. “How about this… seven Fu Bo ships and one Wan Jun, coupled with Wu Gong speedboats. Hand them to me within a day. The civilians living on the coast are still in the abyss of suffering; they have been longing for the Navy to rescue them, like waiting for the rain in a drought. We cannot delay any further.”

At this moment, what else could Wang Aishui say? He got Dou Huainan to finish writing the receipt of loan and imprinted Shen Leng’s general’s seal on it. He thought to himself: In any case, if anything were to happen and when the imperial court questions, I will say that you snatched them. And besides, Changan city is very far away…

Chen Ran, who was standing next to him, whispered, “Congratulations, general for scoring a Wan Jun.”

Shen Leng whispered as well, “It feels great…”

The few of them sat in Wang Aishui’s drawing room, resting. The craftsmen in the dock sorted out the seven Fu Bo ships in the shortest time possible. Shen Leng’s men moved all the supplies over from the Xiong Niu ships to the Fu Bo ships. They did not have to move the items in the two Liu Ying ships. The Wan Jun was slowly being towed out of the waterway in the dock by a couple of boats and turned around. They should be able to set out not long later.

Wang Aishui finally heaved a sigh of relief. He chuckled and asked, “If there are any other things you need help with, feel free to let me know, general. We are all Great Ning’s officials. Even though our job scopes are different, we are all faithful patriots. The Navy is heading down south to fight on behalf of our country to protect our territory. The only thing I can do is to spare no effort to construct better and more battleships. As long as it is within my means, I will give it to you.”

After he said that, he stared blankly. He regretted immediately. He thought to himself about how he could say those polite words to other people, but he should never have said that to Shen Leng…

He cautiously looked at Shen Leng, hoping that Shen Leng would say that he had no other requests.

“There is one more thing I’d like you to help me with.”

Wang Aishui almost slid off his chair. “Ahem, ahem…General Shen, go ahead.”

“There are still quite a number of Qiuli people in the Navy right? The ones I personally caught from before. I heard that the Commandant of Justice’s men managed to subdue them and turned them into docile beings. I need to select a few of them and take them with me. In that way, I can save some effort in looking for locals to translate for us. Moreover, we can get them to infiltrate them and scout out intelligence for us.”

Wang Aishui looked very troubled. “That…”

Shen Leng was rather surprised. He was willing to hand Wan Jun over, so why was it so difficult for him to hand those Qiuli men over?

“General Shen, There are some things you don’t undertand…if you want to take those Qiuli prisoners with you, naturally, it is not a problem. Not just a few, even if you wanted more, it is not an issue. You can use them as translators and interpreters, but please don’t make them spies.”

Shen Leng replied, “You’re saying that they still cannot be utilized? That the Commandant of Justice’s men merely scared them into submission, and that they did not truly pledge allegiance to us?”

“That’s not it either. Just…”

Wang Aishui sighed. “Perhaps it’s because they spent a long time on the dock and do not get to see the sun much. Or perhaps, because of Great Ning’s environment, those Qiuli people are now…not as dark anymore. When they speak, they sound a little like Jiangnan locals. Some of them even use our expressions when speaking. The Commandant of Justice’s men trained them way too harshly. I’m afraid that the moment those people set eyes on them, they would be exposed.”

He leaned towards one side and listened, before pointing at the window. “Have a listen. The people singing a xiaodiao (Note: a Chinese folk song genre) song are Qiuli men.”

Shen Leng listened carefully. He got a shock. “And they’re singing so gently and rather charmingly too?”